Because She Didn't Stay Behind
by BrightWings111
Summary: Hikari goes to Karakura Town with Aizen becasue she can't shake the feeling that something's going to go wrong. When things take a turn for the worst, as she predicted, she gets captured by Soul Society and sent to a hearing with Central 46. Will she be able to pull off the charade that he manipulated her, or will they see through it? AizenxOC oneshot


**A/N: Aizen x OC! YAY! This one's with my Shinigami OC, Hikari. This idea for a story has been bugging me for so long, but I didn't know how to make it a complete story… so a oneshot was born. Oh, and all of the italics later on are Hikari remembering things that Aizen said to her. Just thought I should clear that up. The way this fic is going to work is that each chapter is going to be a separate oneshot, none linked to another in any way. Enjoy! I do not own Bleach or its characters, only Hikari and Mei, who is not in this one.**

_-Because She Didn't Stay Behind-_

"Please," Hikari pleaded. "Let me go with you." She couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't going to be returning from this fight.

"No," Aizen said firmly. "I need you to stay here."

"I'm getting a very bad feeling about this," she countered. "I'm not just going to stay here and do nothing!"

"But you won't be doing nothing," he said. "You give me a reason to come back."

"But I want to fight!" she protested. "Please, just let me fight with you."

He sighed. "There's no changing your mind, is there?" he asked. She shook her head. "Alright, fine. You can come." She smiled and dashed through the Garganta into Karakura Town.

Aizen walked through a little slower, chuckling, with Ichimaru and Tosen right behind him. "Energetic much?" he joked. Hikari could see the looks of disbelief on the faces of the Shinigami. She guessed they'd never seen him act so laidback. She saw it every day.

She laughed and stretched her arms over her head. "I haven't been to the World of the Living in what feels like forever!" she smiled.

"And who might you be?" the old Shinigami in the front asked. She suddenly turned deadly serious and turned toward the old man.

"Shimizu Hikari," she replied. Her hand reflexively reached for her zanpakutou.

"Hikari," Aizen said warningly. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Your time to fight will come soon enough."

She pouted. "Aww… I wanted to fight!" she whined, crossing her arms.

"Soon," he chuckled. "Give the Espada a chance first."

Three Gargantas opened. Starrk and Lillynette were in one, Barragan and his fraccion were in another, and Harribel and her fraccion were in the third. "I guess…" Hikari shrugged. She walked back next to Aizen, slightly behind him.

The old Shinigami trapped the four of them (Aizen, Tosen, Hikari, and Ichimaru) in a barrier of fire. "Well this sucks," she huffed.

After a long while, Hikari sensed another Garganta open. She shifted her gaze to Aizen. "Help at last?" she asked. He nodded.

An earsplitting scream sounded from outside the barrier. She put her hands over her ears. "At least it got rid of the barrier," she muttered as she watched the last of the flames go out.

Hikari frowned as she studied the battle. "There's no one left for me to fight," she pouted.

"There will be soon," Aizen said as he shifted his gaze to the side. She followed his gaze and noticed eight new fighters; on the other side of course.

"Shimizu Hikari?" the man in front asked. It took her a moment to recognize him. He _did_ cut all of his hair off after all.

"Oh! Hirako! Hello!" He didn't get the chance to respond since her sword was being swung full-force at his face. "I'd like to repay you for abandoning me, taicho." He blocked her sword and pushed her away.

"WHAT THE HELL HIKARI?" Shinji yelled.

Hikari shrugged. "I'm not the one who abandoned their teammate in Hueco Mundo." She noticed Aizen's eyes spark with interest. Whoops, guess she forgot to mention that. "Anyways, what's done is done." She charged at him again.

He released his zanpakutou. "Dammit…" she muttered. Luckily, she knew his zanpakutou, but she hated it. Her head was spinning as she reversed everything in her mind, but she managed to block and dodge his attacks. 'I am so lucky we used to be training partners,' she thought.

She started noticing a pattern in his attacks. 'Crap!' she thought. 'Not this!' She tensed and shifted her body to look like she was going to block, but she really wasn't going to.

"One," she muttered as he disappeared right before his sword hit her. He reappeared behind her. "Two," she muttered as he disappeared again. "Three… Four…" She raised her sword to block for real. "Five." The two swords never connected.

Instead, she felt a searing pain explode in her chest. "What?" she gasped. There was a long gash reaching from shoulder to shoulder, and it was bleeding badly. She lost her hold on her reiatsu holding her up, and she felt herself falling.

"Gomen, Shimizu," Shinji said. "I added a sixth strike."

Hikari closed her eyes in defeat. She knew that she had no chance of winning from the start; he knew her battle tactics and how she thought in a fight. "Gomen," she whispered. She had failed Aizen.

A hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her fall. "Now what are you apologizing for?" Her eyes snapped open.

"A-A-Aizen-sama?" she stuttered. He slowly lowered her to the ground.

"Wait here," he ordered, then took off back to the fight.

She sighed. Left behind again. She traced the gash with her hand and winced. "Might as well do something about this," she muttered.

"Looks nasty," a voice that Hikari hated chimed. She whipped around and glared at him.

"Get out of here, snake," she spat.

"I came ta help," Ichimaru pouted.

"I don't need your help," she snapped. She didn't like him. Nor did she trust him for that matter.

"Ya look like yer dead on yer feet, Kari," he said.

"Don't call me that," she growled. "And I'm fine!"

"No yer not." She eyed him warily as he approached her. "I'm not the best, but I picked up some healing kidou from Izuru." Hesitantly, she sat down, leaning against the ruins of a building. He began the kidou.

After a few minutes, he stood up. "I've stopped the bleedin, but it can still reopen. Take it easy. Aizen-taicho wouldn't want'cha ta push yerself," he instructed before shunpoing back to the fight.

She sighed. It seemed like she was always being left behind. Of course, she would rather be left behind than alone with that snake. She leaned her head back to watch the battle. She couldn't fight anyways. After a few minutes, she slipped into unconsciousness. She figured it was due to the blood loss and welcomed the rest. What she didn't know, was that Ichimaru had put her to sleep with Tanma Otoshi, a kidou that forces the target into unconsciousness.

Hikari suddenly woke up when Aizen's reiatsu disappeared. No, it didn't disappear, it moved through a senkaimon. She drew her zanpakutou and opened one of the gates for herself. She stepped into it and rushed through the Precipice World without hesitation.

She dashed in his direction, using his reiatsu as a guide. He was fighting. He was hurt. The snake was dead. Then she sensed something that made her freeze. Aizen was losing. The reiatsu he was fighting was stronger than him.

She started running again, even faster than she was before. She had to help him. Her wound reopened, but she didn't pay it any mind.

She found him just as a spike of red reiatsu spiked out of his chest. The two of them locked gazes.

"No," she whispered as more started protruding from his body. He said something. She couldn't make it out over the roaring in her ears and the thundering of the reiatsu, but it sure as hell looked like he had said "Run."

"No!" she screamed as the spell finished and she could no longer see him. The boy with orange hair turned toward her as she turned to run.

After one step she felt very dizzy and fell to her knees. Then she remembered. Her wound had reopened, and had been bleeding this whole time. She didn't have the strength to run.

_You give me a reason to come back._ His words echoed through her head.

'It's my fault,' she thought. 'This happened because I didn't stay behind.' She let silent tears fall. Aizen's words kept repeating in her mind before she fell unconscious, on her own this time.

'Gomen ne.'

_I don't want anything to happen to you_.

Where was she?

_If something should go wrong, do what you do best._

Aizen?

_Weave a lie._

Why was she remembering this?

_Get Soul Society wrapped around your finger._

Was she dead?

_You can do it, Hikari._

No, but he probably was.

_You've never given up at anything._

Or did they seal him away?

_That's what I love about you._

She snapped her eyes open and noticed three things. One, she was not dead. Two, her wound was bandaged. And three, she was in a cell; in Soul Society.

She sat up quickly and examined her surroundings. Her zanpakutou was on the other side of the bars, along with a guard.

The guard turned towards her. "Good," he said, "You're awake. You will be tried by Central 46 in one hour."

Tried. The weight of the word hit her hard. She was going to be tried as a traitor. The fact that they were waiting meant that Aizen was currently being tried.

_Weave a lie. Get Soul Society wrapped around your finger._

What role should she play? Innocent? Or defiant? She decided on innocent and started playing it right away.

"Sosuke…" she whispered. She hoped he'll forgive her for using his first name. "Where's Sosuke?"

The guard looked startled at her use of Aizen's first name. Bingo.

_Get Soul Society wrapped around your finger._

"Where is he?" she asked again. Forcing a few tears out only helped. The guard stayed quiet. "No…" she whispered. "You didn't… it can't be… he-"

"He's not dead," the guard interrupted. "He's being tried right now."

She knew it, but she wanted confirmation from the guard without seeming too smart. 'Keep up the act,' she reminded herself.

Her eyes widened and she ran to the bars. "Let me see him," she pleaded, "Please."

"I can't do that," the guard said.

"Please!" she cried. "I need to see him! If only so I can apologize!"

"I can't do that," the guard repeated. "Now drop the subject."

She dropped to her knees and cried. If she was going to act at all, she might as well go all out.

"Eh?" The guard looked like he didn't know what to do. "I… no, I didn't-" She didn't stop. "Oh alright ALRIGHT! I'll see what I can do."

She looked at him hopefully. "Really?" she whimpered.

"Yeah yeah yeah, especially since I get the feeling that he didn't tell you the truth," the guard said.

Weave a lie? Yes. Wrapped around her finger? Hell yeah. She did feel slightly bad for the guard… she was, after all, now using him.

The next hour passed agonizingly slowly. Of course, she spent the whole time building character and thinking up a story that seemed realistic. Well, realistic enough.

The guard entered her cell and blindfolded her. Then he bound her wrists. 'Probably should have expected this,' she thought with a sigh.

"You said you only wanted to apologize," the guard said as he started leading her. "I've arranged it so you we'll pass him on his way out. If you really only did want to apologize, then you'll have the chance then. I'll give you a signal when he'll be in hearing range."

Okay, she knew she had him wrapped around her finger, just like Aizen had said to do, but she didn't expect it to be this much. Wow, could someone say special treatment? She only nodded, though. Take advantage of what you've got, that's what she was going to do.

Sometime during the walk, the guard tapped her wrist. That was apparently her signal. "Gomen ne," she breathed without skipping a breath. It seemed natural to everyone, and no one heard her. No one but Aizen. She felt the reiatsu of who she was walking past, suppressed of course, tense at her words.

If there was a response, she didn't hear it. She doubted there was, though. She felt herself forced into a chair and her blindfold was taken off. So this was Central 46.

'Look frightened,' she told herself. She put a look of slight fear on her face as she gazed up at the people.

"What is your name, girl?" someone asked.

'Innocent and frightened,' she reminded herself. "Sh-Shimizu Hikari," she stuttered, a spark of fear in her voice. 'Perfect.'

"Ah yes, the girl who we believed to have been killed on her mission to Hueco Mundo over 200 years ago," someone else said.

She wanted to yell at them so badly, but she needed to keep her character. Believed dead, yeah right. Hirako Shinji abandoned her in that never-ending desert, and she wandered aimlessly around there until Aizen found her.

"Why do you fight for Aizen?" the first voice questioned. She was expecting this question. This was the question she spent the most time thinking of an answer for.

_Weave a lie._

"His intentions," she started shakily, "Were good. By uniting Hueco Mundo and Soul Society under the same leader, there would be less war and death. The only reason he fought was because you fought against him." She hoped with all her heart that they believed that Aizen had told that lie to her. She really did know what he wanted, but she just couldn't bring herself to fight him.

"Nonsense!" the second voice spat.

"Lies!" a third voice called out.

"No it's not!" Hikari protested. Innocent, lovesick, and manipulated. That was the role that was going to get her the lightest sentence. "He wanted nothing more than to help!" She surprised herself with her defense. Yeah, that was _nothing_ like Aizen… but it certainly was a lie that he was likely to tell.

"You've been believed dead for over 200 years, and now you turn up on the enemy's side," the third voice said. "He must have told you a lie. When he betrayed us, he told us he was going to become God. He was trying to create the Oken, and tried to kill an entire town to do it. He is evil and manipulative. You were just a pawn to him, Shimizu Hikari. He was only using you."

"I love him from the bottom of my heart!" she cried. Whoa, now where did that one come from? "I trust him completely!" Okay, that one was true… "I will never believe that he was using me. I lost everything when I was abandoned on my mission to Hueco Mundo!" She felt herself start to cry. Real tears. "I don't want to lose him too…!"

She had confused herself with everything she just said. How much of what she just said was true? She didn't even know herself. She knew that she did trust him. She also knew that she didn't believe he was using her. Losing everything when she was abandoned by Shinji in Hueco Mundo… yeah, that fit. Not wanting to lose him? Guess that was true…

Love him from the bottom of her heart. Did she really love him? Yes, he had helped her when she was alone in Hueco Mundo. She could be herself around him, and was told that she brought out a side of him that no one had ever seen before. But, love? Could she really put it that far?

She thought back to the fight just days before. He had saved her life. Yeah, that was a biggie. One thing she couldn't figure out while she was waiting in her cell was why she was so desperate to go to him when she sensed that he was hurt. Or why she was so scared and distressed when those reiatsu swords started coming out of him. All of it pointed to one answer to her question.

Yes.

She did love him.

"Love him you say?" the first voice asked. They sounded interested in that.

"Y-yes," she replied shakily. "I… love him."

"Abandonment?" the second voice said. "Now where would you get that idea?"

"I was sent on a mission with my taicho, Hirako Shinji, and I know we stuck together when we went through the Garganta. We were traveling together, and I suddenly found myself wandering alone, and no one was ever sent to look for me," she answered. True… every last word.

"Take her out," the third voice ordered. "The decision is guilty by manipulation. She is to be allowed to wander about with supervision at all times."

Supervised? Better than what she was expecting, but she could still try for a little bit extra…

"Let me see him," she pleaded. "I need to see him, just one more time."

"No," a fourth voice spoke out. "No one is allowed to see him. He has been imprisoned for 20,000 years. In that time, no one is allowed near him."

"Please!" she cried. "One more time! Just a minute! That's all I ask…!" Oh yeah, tugging at the heart strings. "Let me tell him goodbye…!"

She could see the conflicted and pained looks on the Central 46 members. Her specialty was manipulation… and she was _very_ good at it.

The following minute of silence seemed like a lifetime. "Five minutes. Supervised," the first voice gave in. She forced a slightly happy look behind the tears. She imagined she looked like a mess, but it didn't matter. They were going to let her see him. For five minutes even. Three cheers for manipulation.

"You have five minutes," the guard growled as he pushed her into the small, dark room.

"Hikari?" Aizen asked. He sounded surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"They let me see you," she replied, walking towards him.

"Your sentence?" he asked.

"Guilty by manipulation," she informed him. "Allowed to wander freely while supervised at all times."

"Not as harsh as I expected," he said.

"We both know me and lying," she reminded him.

"Yes, we do," he replied. "Earlier, I thought I heard your voice say you were sorry. Anything to say to that?"

"It's my fault," she whispered, sitting on the bed next to him.

"In what way?" he asked. "None this happened because of you."

"It happened because I didn't stay behind," she said. Her voice was starting to tremble. 'Not now!' she thought. 'Don't you dare cry, Hikari!'

"It did not," he said, putting an arm over her shoulder comfortingly. "It happened because I underestimated the enemy."

She lost her grip on her emotions, rested her head on his shoulder, and cried. She wasn't scared of doing so, either.

The guard walked in to find them still in that position; Aizen with his arm around her shoulders, her with her head on his shoulder crying silently.

"Shimizu," the guard said. "Time's up."

"I'll stay," she whispered. "I'll give up my freedom and take the same sentence as him." The guard looked stunned. Aizen gave her a warning glance.

"No," he said firmly. "Go with the guard. Keep your freedom."

She shook her head slightly on his shoulder. "No," she said with equal firmness. "I want to stay. I don't care if it means I give up my freedom for 20,000 years. I don't want to leave your side."

He sighed. "There's no changing your mind, is there?"

She shook her head again. "Just like there was no changing my mind when we went to Karakura, there's no changing my mind now."

Aizen looked at the guard. "The only way to get her out will be to drag her out, and she will be fighting it," he sighed. "She's stubborn like that."

The guard thought for a second, then called out to another guard to inform Central 46. "You'll still have to come with me while Central 46 decides." She glared at him. "You'll just be waiting out here; we're not going to take you away yet."

She reluctantly got up and wiped the tears off of her face. "Anata wa watashi no kokoro wo motte, [1]" she whispered before following the guard out.

She waited in silence, staring at the floor. She didn't know what she would do if Central 46 said no. Probably fight it, like Aizen said she would. He knew her so well.

The other guard came rushing back panting. "Central 46," he panted, "has… approved." Hikari stood up in an instant. She wanted to rush in, but allowed the guard to lead her in. Once the guard had let her in, she ran into Aizen's arms.

"I can stay," she cried. "They're letting me stay with you."

"Why did you give up your freedom?" he asked, accepting her embrace.

"You already have my answer," she replied. "Anata wa watashi no kokoro wo motte."

"You really meant that?" he asked. She nodded and sat down on the bed. Well, this wasn't very well thought through… Central 46 had only given them one bed.

"Should I ask for another bed?" she asked.

"Is there really a problem with just the one?" he replied.

She thought for a moment. "Guess not," she laughed. He chuckled in reply.

"There's the Hikari I know and love," he said.

"Love huh?" she said. That's when he realized what he had just said and the color drained from his face. "Nothing wrong with that."

**A/N: Hope Aizen wasn't too OOC… or Central 46 for that matter. This one has been nagging me at the back of my mind for weeks, I just didn't know where to start.**

**[1]: You have my heart**


End file.
